Celebration
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Sidestory to My Sanctuary. At Taichi's insistence, Hikari and Noriko go on a vacation together in New York.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One: Tickets_

"Come on Noriko, your flight's tomorrow!" Taichi all but shoved the two parents both into their apartment to pack, tickets in hand and Kei under an arm. He had bought them with his new, fancy, diplomat salary. (Hikari had joked about it since he had started the program but she never figured he would do something this absurd. Not that she could blame him.) and was not taking no for an answer. "Give me Kei's stuff and we'll get out of your hair so you can get up in the morning! It'll be fine!"

Kei giggled with delight. Noriko, however, was not amused. Hikari looked somewhere in between. Looking back, however, she couldn't exactly complain. It was free.

It was the twenty-second day of December and Kawada Noriko had just been planning to go home after taking Kei and Nyaromon to the bookstore and cuddle with Hikari to enjoy their short time off before all of the family dragged them for a Christmas Eve date night exchange.

Of course, Yagami Taichi, being the anxious big brother that he is, had to get involved. He saw her while walking home. (He knew she hated cars, he knew she hated big fancy transportation, so of course, what did he do? Invite Kei to sit in the shiny thing because he realistically _couldn't_ walk to work. Manipulative jerk.) They were barely in the car for more than two minutes, little Kei being happily occupied by Agumon's claws and the faces the little dino was famous for making in the middle of serious meetings, when Taichi asked _that question_ :

"How long has it been since you or Hikari has taken a vacation?"

Noriko stared at him for a moment, even as he continued his sedate drive. She'd never known anyone that wasn't a truck driver to go this slow. "A while," she finally said. "The school years are pretty taxing with the parents and all. I don't remember to be honest."

"And that's a problem," Taichi declared. He would have gestured dramatically if he wasn't driving, Noriko was positively sure of it. "You know what happens when Hikari overworks herself."

"Yeah, she cuddles with me and watches cheesy dramas for six hours, what's the problem?"

"The problem is that neither of you go out." Taichi paused at a stoplight. So they were going to get Hikari from the training she had been dragged to about the recent field trip choices for her grade. She was a kindergarten teacher, not a high-school coach. However, Hikari being Hikari, she had nodded eagerly and listened along. She was more than likely bored out of her skull right now. "Kei is six. The Digimon are around, heck, we're around, I fail to see the problem. You walk him home and he's six."

"I ask her and Mom to do it!" Kei chimed from the backseat. Taichi made a playful scowl into the mirror.

"Not helping, buddy."

Kei grinned wider and Taichi reflected that the kid really had inherited his mother's penchant for teasing _him._ Brat. "Look," he continued, focusing on the road again. "I know your jobs are important, and the family is important. I probably shouldn't be talking because Ayame and I are just trying for a kid."

"Probably shouldn't be talking about this with Kei around," Noriko interrupted, folding her arms.

Taichi, as was customary when he flt he was doing the right thing, talked over her. Ayame was so getting a text once she had some breathing room. "But you guys are pretty young." He mussed his short hair, probably wishing it was the floof he had grown up with and slowly trimmed. "And busy. You need to make some time for yourselves or you'll both be grumpy and I dunno about you but!" He winked at Kei. "I don't think Kei wants two grumpy mothers instead of just one."

Noriko grinned a little. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Whatever you want it to." He slowed in front of the parking structure. "So, come on. For Hikari."

Damn it. He always knew that would work. Bastard.

She let out a sigh. "What did you have in mind?"

Taichi smirked and the smug look meant he had been planning this for a while. She decided not to punch him though. Hikari wouldn't want to see her brother with a black eye, funny as it was. He pulled out his phone and started texting. "Mimi wanted Ayame and I to fly out to New York. Apparently she's working with Daisuke for a New Year's special on what noodles are healthy alternatives that are affordable. Unfortunately, Ayame's got a lot of health appointments for the two of us planned for next week and the rescheduling would be a nightmare."

Noriko blinked. "She got a timeslot on MSNBC?"

Taichi grinned, now watching human and dinosaur play mini magnetic checkers under Nyaromon's curious watch. "Somehow. I think Hiroaki-san knows somebody who works there and they were looking for someone to take the place of one of the older shows. So a few days before is her premiere, and she said she was hoping for a couple of us to be in the audience. I heard Michael's supposed to be there, and Wallace, at least. So you wouldn't be alone with Daisuke and Mimi."

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing." Noriko controlled her deadpan, if only so she could smile and wave at Hikari as she hurried to the car. How no idiots decided to drive by and hit her, she could not figure out.

Kei, at the sound of her footsteps and Nyaromon's swaying tail, looked up from the game and waved. Tailmon leaped from her shoulder and pulled the door open.

"Easy, Tailmon," Taichi joked. "We just had this thing cleaned."

"Don't give me incentive," grumbled the cat. "That meeting was a nightmare. If I have to hear one more complaint about the restrictions of water and the right headgear I will _Neko Punch_ that person into the next century."

Hikari laughed and shook her head, sidling in after her cat. Kei would have jumped her if he wasn't, thankfully, wearing his seatbelt. Nyaromon had no way to avoid it, and naturally leaped into her lap. "I didn't expect an entourage."

"We're going home and packing," Noriko informed her. "Taichi insists we take a vacation."

"We're taking Kei and I bought tickets, if you need persuasion," Taichi offered. "Ken and Miyako were going to but Ayame wants practice."

Hikari laughed. "Give her my thanks, but Kei's not at the age where he wakes you up in the middle of the night anymore." She looked over at Kei. "Will you be okay being with Uncle and Auntie for a little while?"

Kei only grinned. "I'm a big tough Chosen, Mama!"

Hikari mussed his hair. "Indeed you are."

That settled that then.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** FIRAGA YOUR SHIPPING TRASH HAS ARRIVED. *coughs* Anyway, I have finally started this fic that she dropped a headcanon of for me back in december. It inspired me a lot but I've now actually written it down and it will be short! Ish! Anyway, please read and review and if you aren't caught up with my sanctuary, go for it! Thanks!

Challenges: For the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp prompt 50: happily ever after (Noriko/Hikari), 28 days of love challenge day 28 write your current OTP, I Kissed a Girl and I liked it Challenge For the prompt: concerned, valentines and white day advent 2015 day 3. write about a 'true' and unyielding' love, and Diversity writing Challenge I16. Write a sidestory to one of your other stories.


	2. Chapter 2

_Warning for alluded to homophobia and gender dysphoria._

* * *

 _Chapter Two: Fluff of Clouds_

"Hikari stop staring at the silly snow globes and come on~"

"But Kei might want one," Hikari protested, looking at the wide-eyed Nyaromon staring at its first snowfall. Awful images panged her heart for a moment, until Tailmon nosed her cheek. "He would love this."

Noriko snorted and came back to grab her by the arm of her cashmere sweater, "We can get him one from America that has the right color, now come on. The gate's far way."

Hikari acquiesced with a small huffing laugh. "Who was it that was reluctant to go again?" she asked the air despite knowing its incredible attraction to sudden deafness.

Fortunately, Noriko heard this and turned a bright red. "Aw, cram it. I like vacations as much as you do."

"You and I have a varied idea of vacations," Hikari said, tightening her grip on her carry-on. It wouldn't do to lose it after the long haul through security it had taken them both to get them. Why did digivices set off metal detectors? She had always figured they were made of some sort of Digimon plastic. "Like i prefer mine without too much drama. Promise me you won't fight the next security guard."

Noriko scoffed. "You know damn well that I won't be making any promises of the _sort_."

Hikari mimed throwing her hands up into the air as she walked. "What am I going to do with you?"

Noriko winked at her as she leaned over the heads of taller fellows to see the numbers. "Kiss me in a closet?"

Hikari's face colored a dark shade of pink. "We're in _public_ , Noriko." Not that that tended to stop her.

Noriko gently took her by the wrist. "Spoilsport." And they started to walk, both suddenly feeling their faces burn with the embarrassment of what could have happened instead of what actually was. Japan was not a country where they were allowed to run free, even now, and it galled Noriko the longer things went on. But what could she do? What did she want to do?

Now that was a good question not to think about during a vacation stay. Noriko pushed the thoughts and the sudden itch of the hem of her skirt and kept walking. Hikari's fingers brushed hers as they separated briefly in the crowd and Noriko felt herself smile.

She would have to relax, for starters. The rest would just have to come later.

* * *

After the third hour on the plane ride, Noriko assumed that she wasn't going to get any sleep. She yawned behind her hand, eyes watering. Hikari breathed into her arm, eyes closed. Noriko smiled a little and leaned her slightly taller head onto brown hair. Tailmon's ring shifted on her tail, but no more. Terriermon was just as peaceful. Small miracles. It probably wouldn't last past getting off of the plane.

Noriko breathed, her exhale tickling Hikari's cheek. Thankfully, the other didn't stir. Noriko looked around, temped to run her fingers over the cashmere sweater and slip their hands together like everything was all right.

She stopped and kept her hands in her lap. Anyone's eyes could open after all, and two women holding hands, fully grown adults capable of making their own decisions at that, were still looked upon much in the same way you looked upon a disabled frog.

Noriko let out a softer exhale. Two women. That was what they were, right? Two old biddies taking a vacation away from their kid. Two women… but even that didn't feel right.

She snorted to herself. _I thought I was supposed to get through these things by now._

Her dress shirt itched, all the way into her armpits. Noriko closed her eyes and took Hikari's hand anyway, and tried to sleep.

Maybe English had different words, better ones, to explain this. She would have to ask someone, perhaps Mimi, when they got down.

* * *

Hikari had never been so grateful for her brother getting first class seats as she was right now. Flights across the ocean in anything other than this would probably have permanently dislocated her spine, at least before Noriko figured out how to make the seats lay down. Wonderful inventions those. Also terrifying during turbulence.

At least they had let them take Tailmon and Terriermon on the plane with them. Putting her partner in a crate would have asked for everyone's bags to be shredded, if they were lucky.

She sat up and groaned at the sound of the seatbelt ping. "My neck..."

Noriko groaned from next to her and when she shifted her arms, she caught their twined fingers. Hikari almost pulled away, almost, but then scoffed at herself.

Let them see it, she decided on impulse. Let them.

"Your neck is all you've got to complain about..." she heard Noriko grumble, using her free hand to rub at a reachable point on her ribs. "You're lucky you're so short."

Hikari managed to smile as she stretched a bit. "I think you mean 'you're lucky you're the perfect size for me."

Noriko's eyebrows shot right up into her hairline and she grinned. "Yeah, that's exactly what I mean." She turned the clock on and groaned. "No way..."

Hikari moved to sit better as the landing began. "Time zones stink, huh?"

"A _thirteen hour_ timezone difference does." Noriko rubbed her eyes. "Are we meeting anyone?"

"I think Mimi-san said a couple of her flatmates would be there."

Hikari said _flatmates_ the same way Miyako said _couple_ when she looked at the two of them. There was enough subtext to be considered television worthy. Well, all she knew of Mimi was that she liked to break the mold a little. She was going to have to see this.

Thankfully, not long after she thought about this, the flight attendants came around with coffee. God bless.

When they finally departed the plane, it was with stumbling legs and loose grips on their carryons. Now Noriko and Hikari leaned on each other in desperation not to fall over. As they walked out of the gate, Noriko found herself scanning the room for something like a sign. They continued down the path until kanji greeted their tired eyes. Noriko snapped awake at the sight of who was carrying the sign.

" _Keiko?!"_

Noriko's long time ex-girlfriend, fellow Dark Seed infectee, and good friend grinned at her. "Surprise!"

Hikari burst into giggles beside her and Noriko attempted to glare. They were going to have _words_ later. "Why does no one tell me anything?"

Keiko's expression turned mockingly grave. "Because you're never on Skype."

Noriko shot her the rudest hand gesture she could think of. Fortunately, it fell flat.


End file.
